At the heart of many professional soccer careers is a blind faith that, one day, you’re going to find the path that gets you where you believe you belong.

Just over three years ago, having completed his college career at Quinnipiac University the prior fall, Jared Mazzola arrived at USL League Two side Ann Arbor FC to try and kickstart a professional career that had to that point failed to launch.

On Saturday night, he’ll be the starting goalkeeper for Sacramento Republic FC in the 2025 USL Jägermeister Cup Final as it plays host to Hartford Athletic at Heart Health Park, having become one of the stories of the tournament this season.

“If someone told me that, I would probably have told them that they they're a bit crazy because the way that my career currently was,” Mazzola told uslchampionship.com this week. “But I knew where my trajectory was going, and I always knew that would bring me to something like this.”

Opportunity Knocks

Truth be told, Mazzola didn’t get a lot of playing time at Ann Arbor, but when he got his chance, he performed well. In three appearances he posted eight saves and allowed only a pair of goals in the competitive Great Lakes Division.

As the season ended, however, an opportunity arose. After a mid-season injury suffered by back-up goalkeeper Ben Hale, USL League One club Greenville Triumph SC was in the market for someone to join starter Paul Christensen and USL Academy signing Juan Martinez-Bastidas in the club’s goalkeeping corps.

After a successful training stint, Mazzola was signed to his first professional deal as a 24-year-old in August that year.

Taking the Next Step

After compiling a good first season as a starter, recording 86 saves to rank second in the league in the regular season while posting six shutouts, Mazzola took aim at the next level. It was time to try and find a landing spot in the USL Championship.

At Sacramento Republic FC, he was becoming part of one of the strongest clubs in the league, one that was coming off a trip to the Western Conference Final, only a year removed from a trip to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final.

And he was going to be training alongside – and competing for minutes with – a goalkeeper in Danny Vitiello who was ascendent in the league’s hierarchy.

Coming off a 2023 season in which he was voted the USL Championship Goalkeeper of the Year, Vitiello couldn’t have been a tougher No. 1 to knock out of his starting role, but it was exactly the place where Mazzola believed he could progress. He was proven correct, with the competition in training each day led by goalkeeper coach Bradley Johnson serving as a proving ground for both.

“It was excellent to be able to be in a position that had daily competition, someone to help push me every single day,” said Mazzola. “And I played the other side of it, where I was helping to push Danny. That was something that I think both him and I acknowledged very early on, and it was something that was really, really good to have.”

While Vitiello made the bulk of the side’s starts, Mazzola got his feet wet with three starts in the regular season for Sacramento under former Head Coach Mark Briggs. Since then, the relationship between the two and their competitiveness has remained high, an element that for current Head Coach Neill Collins is key for the team dynamic.

“I think it’s an example for any player that if you want opportunities, you’ve got to do everything you can control,” said Collins. “Jared has done that. I promised him at the start of the season he would get a fair opportunity to show, and he’s definitely earned that. I think it says a lot about how good Danny Vitiello has been in the league as well, that to have that great competition between the pair of them.”

Up For the Cup

As Collins arrived at Republic FC this offseason, there was still a clear hierarchy in place when it came to Republic FC’s goalkeeping room.

At the same time, there was also going to be a new opportunity for Mazzola. The addition of USL Championship clubs for the second edition of the USL Jägermeister Cup gave Collins an option – as has been seen elsewhere in global soccer – to give his back-up regular action as part of the club’s cup competitions.

“I was extremely excited,” said Mazzola. “Obviously having that role, you can separate it. Having it separated from the league allows you to kind of step into this role that is something entirely different. … For me, it was something that I was able to look at and say, ‘I don't want this to be my last game of the season. I want to keep playing, I want to keep winning.’”

“Jared has not succeeded out of luck,” said Collins. “He's succeeded because he trains very hard every day, and Bradley Johnson does a great job with both Danny and Jared. I'm pleased that he’s got that limelight, because – let's be quite honest – he's in one of the toughest roles in football. Every other position has a certain chance or opportunity to get in a game, whereas as a goalkeeper, it can at times be quite frustrating, but he’s handled it great, and he deserves it.”

Coming Up Clutch

After starring in the group stage, helping Republic FC advance as Group 1 winner, Mazzola took things to another level in the knockout stage.

Going on the road to Loudoun United FC in the Quarterfinals and Rhode Island FC in the Semifinals, Sacramento’s attack was unable to come up with a decisive moment, leaving both games to be decided from the penalty spot.

There, Mazzola shone bright, making two saves on Abdellatif Aboukoura and Zach Ryan – Loudoun’s top two scorers in club history – and then making the final save on Noah Fuson to send Republic FC past Rhode Island.

“I think shootouts are one of those things every goalkeeper secretly hopes for,” said Mazzola. “It gives you an opportunity to put the team on your shoulders and allows you your time to shine through. I’m obviously extremely blessed to have partook in two this year and won two, and been able to make saves in both of them, however, I know it goes the other way sometimes.

“I just know that as it pertains to general play, and my life in general, I’m just going to give it 110 percent no matter what I do, and I’ll be perfectly fine with the outcomes.”

Creating His Own Pathway

Whatever happens in Saturday’s Final, the performances Mazzola has produced will have turned heads and could potentially open new doors.

He might not end up being the next Matt Turner or Maxime Crepeau – both of whom spent time in the USL Championship before earning senior international caps for the United States and Canada – but the journey he’s been on is one that’s starting to become more familiar for players across the USL ecosystem.

For Collins, it’s a sign of the opportunities the USL is offering for players to continue to pursue their aspirations in the game.

“I think it’s a great credit to the league that there’s a genuine pathway,” said Collins. “More players can have that pathway, so their career is not done at 19, 20, they actually can continue to pursue that professional career. Someone like Jared – especially a goalkeeper, who needs the experience, needs to go through the games – I think it just shows you that it works.

“I've been very fortunate to work with three or four players that came through that pathway, Conner Antley, originally with [South Georgia] Tormenta, then Indy, then Tampa Bay, now in MLS. That, for me, is the way the soccer ecosystem should work, and that players can, as they get better, move up the ladder.”

As for Mazzola, Saturday marks an opportunity to deliver once again, while reflecting on how far he’s come in a short space of time.

“It's one of those moments where I can look back and say, ‘I’ve done all that, and I’ve persevered through this, that, and the other to get to where I am now,” he said. “I’m playing a Cup Final. This is certainly the biggest moment in my career, and I’m going to help my team win it.”